Railcar maintenance management system

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a system and a method for managing the repairing, cleaning, painting, or otherwise maintaining of railcars within a railcar maintenance facility. Specifically, the present invention relates to a railcar maintenance management system and method for maintaining railcars within a facility wherein the facility has an inbound track, an outbound track, and a plurality of maintenance stations for moving a railcar in and out of the facility and for repairing, cleaning, or painting the same. Further, the railcar maintenance management system and method allows for efficient movement of railcars through the facility by queueing the railcars at strategic locations within the railcar facility.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system for managing the repairing,cleaning, painting, or other maintenance of railcars within a railcarmaintenance facility. Specifically, the present invention relates to asystem for managing the maintenance of railcars within a facilitywherein the facility has an inbound track, an outbound track, and aplurality of repair stations for moving a railcar in and out of thefacility and for repairing, cleaning, or painting the same. Moreover,the invention relates to a management system that has a plurality ofcommunication devices for signaling the availability of maintenancestations within the maintenance facility. Further, the railcar repairprocess allows for efficient movement of railcars through the facilityby queuing the railcars at strategic locations within the railcarfacility.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The railcar industry presently suffers from high costs associated withrailcar repair. Regularly scheduled repair and maintenance, along withthe inevitable number of wrecks and bad orders, cause some percentage ofeach fleet of railcars to be out of service at any given time. While outof service for repair, a railcar is unable to generate income for theowner of the railcar. Thus, it is desirable to minimize the throughputtime of a repair facility and maximize the efficiency of the railcar'sservice time. Additionally, decreasing the throughput time for repairfacilities allows the industry to rely on smaller fleets, as fewerbackup railcars are needed. Furthermore, it is desirable to minimize thevariability of a repair facility's throughput time to promote accurateestimates of when railcars will return to service. Accurate estimates ofthroughput time decrease costs to the industry by reducing the need forredundant planning.

Traditionally, railcar repair facilities, as well as many othermanufacturing operations, release product into the facility as soon asit arrives regardless of the state of the production system. Railcarrepair facilities traditionally consist of a series of maintenancestations located sequentially along a continuous track. Theassembly-line repair method and repair facility design may beappropriate when working with a standardized product that requiresuniform treatment at each stage of the assembly-line procedure. However,pushing railcars with individual repair process requirements through anassembly-line repair facility leads to inconsistent throughputperformance with large backlogs, increased work-in-process levels, andincreased cycle times having high levels of variation. If a singlerailcar is delayed due to lengthy repair work or a shortage of necessarymaterials, every railcar in the facility behind the delayed railcar mayalso be delayed. Thus, a single railcar can create a work-in-processbottleneck effecting the entire repair production system. Thesebottlenecks may cause the high throughput times and the equally highvariability of throughput times of traditional railcar repairfacilities. Moreover, typical maintenance processes fail to identify theprocess bottleneck, thereby leading to solutions that fail to provideconstant work to the bottleneck. Failure to identify the processbottleneck may lead to inefficiencies, otherwise known as “bottleneckstarving.”

A major limitation of the assembly-line process is the inability toimplement any form of bottleneck planning. In a traditional railcarrepair facility, high levels of work-in-process hide the bottleneckoperation preventing the facility from running at its highestefficiency. One key to improving a maintenance facility's efficiency isto identify the bottleneck operation and ensure that process is incontinuous operation.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve the efficiency andpredictability of railcar repair by identifying a facility layoutcapable of eliminating unnecessary work-in-process bottlenecks. Further,it is desirable to implement a railcar maintenance facility having aplurality of stations to service a plurality of types of railcars havinga plurality of maintenance needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a railcar maintenance managementsystem. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system anda method for managing the repairing, cleaning, painting, or otherwisemaintaining of railcars within a railcar maintenance facility. Further,the railcar repair process allows for efficient movement of railcarsthrough the facility by queuing the railcars at strategic locationswithin the railcar facility.

Therefore, it is an advantage of the present invention to utilize aprocess layout facility to optimize both efficiency and predictabilityof railcar repair.

It is an additional advantage of the present invention to employcustomized routing patterns through the maintenance facility based onthe individual maintenance needs of each railcar.

And it is an additional advantage of the present invention to optimizeworkstation efficiency by eliminating work-in-process bottlenecks withinthe railcar maintenance facility.

Still further, it is an advatnage of the present invention to increaseworkstation utilization within the railcar maintenance facility byproviding workstations capable of servicing multiple product types.

And it is an additional advantage of the present invention to preventthe identified bottleneck process from starving.

It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide a railcarmaintenance facility that utilizes a system of queues to efficientlymove railcars that need maintenance through the facility.

These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparentupon examining the drawings and figures together with the accompanyingwritten description thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be hereafter described by way of example withreference to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 represents a plan view of the railcar maintenance facility havinginbound and outbound rails, queues, transfer tables, and maintenancestations in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an interior blast workstation in anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart for a tank car that requires specificmaintenance performed thereto in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart for a bad order tank car that requiresspecific maintenance performed thereon in another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for a hopper railcar in an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart for a wrecked hopper railcar requiringspecific maintenance in an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates to a railcar maintenance management systemfor cleaning, repairing, painting, and/or otherwise maintainingrailcars. Specifically, the present invention relates to a managementsystem for maintaining railcars that allows for efficient movement ofrailcars through a maintenance facility by queuing the railcars atstrategic locations and by communicating the availability of maintenancestations within the railcar maintenance facility.

Railcar Maintenance Facility

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention showing arailcar maintenance facility 10 for maintaining a plurality of railcars.Railcars may include hoppers, pressurized storage and/or transport tanksand/or any other means for holding, storing and/or transporting goodsvia railway. For example, a typical railcar serviced by the railcarmaintenance facility 10 may be a tank car having a lining therein fortransporting corn syrup, citric acid, starches and/or ethanol.

In FIG. 1, the railcar maintenance facility 10 may include inboundrailways 12 a,12 b leading to a series of railways acting as inboundqueues 14 a-14 d. Railcars entering the facility 10 may enter via asingle railway (not shown) and may be sorted at an inspection station(not shown) based on particular types of railcars and particular typesof maintenance to be completed on the railcars. For example, maintenancemay include cleaning the railcar or components thereof, repairing,painting, and/or any other maintenance activity apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

An inspector within the inspection facility may direct each inboundrailcar to the proper inbound queue 14 a-14 d based on the type ofrailcar and/or the type of work to be performed thereon. Moreover, theinspector may label the inbound railcars with maintenance facilityrouting schedules (not shown) according to each railcar's product typeand maintenance requirements. For example, the inspector may prepare acolor coded magnetic routing schedule and adhere the schedule on eachrailcar to indicate the routing pattern the railcar will take throughthe maintenance facility 10. The schedule may further include a list ofrequired operations having a check box located adjacent to eachoperation listed. Upon completion of each operation, the correspondingcheck box may be marked and signed thereby initiating the next operationon the schedule.

A railcar entering the facility 10 may be classified, for example, aseither “light” or “heavy” based on the amount of work to be performedthereon. “Light” maintenance may refer to exterior or interior cleaning,exterior painting, minor repair, and/or any other maintenance apparentto those skilled in the art as being “light”. Alternatively, “heavy”maintenance may refer to major repair and/or any other maintenanceapparent to those skilled in the art.

A railcar designated as “light” may be routed to the facility 10 via theinbound railway 12 a. Moreover, inbound queues 14 a,14 b may be utilizedto hold railcars until the facility 10 has the capabilities to have thework performed thereon. Further, railcars designated as needing “heavy”maintenance work thereto may be routed to the facility via the inboundrailway 12 b. A railcar may be queued in inbound queues 14 c,14 d. Theinbound queues 14 a-14 d may hold and/or store railcars until stationsare free within the facility that may be necessary to carry out therequired maintenance on the railcars.

In an alternate embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1, theremay be four inbound queues 14 a-14 d. One queue, such as, for example,14 b, may be designated for railcars requiring only repair service. Asecond queue, such as, for example, 14 a, may be designated for railcarsrequiring only repair service but are waiting for the arrival of repairparts to the repair facility 10, as noted above. A third queue, such as,for example, 14 d, may be designated for railcars requiring repairservice and lining service. A fourth queue, such as, for example, 14 c,may be designated for railcars requiring repair service and liningservice but are waiting for the arrival of repair parts to the repairfacility 10. As specified above, these queues may be utilized to holdrailcars before the railcars enter the railcar maintenance facility 10for specific types of maintenance. However, the types of maintenanceshould not be limited as noted above. Any type of maintenance may becarried out within the railcar maintenance facility 10. Further, itshould be noted that the queues may be utilized for any purpose apparentto those skilled in the art and should not be limited as hereindescribed.

The inbound queues 14 a-14 d for the sorted railcars may terminate at atransfer area 18 that may be used to transfer railcars throughout therailcar maintenance facility 10 based on the type of maintenance needed.A primary transfer table 20 may be located within the transfer area 18and may operate along a length of track 22 that may be adjacent tomaintenance stations, described below. The primary transfer table 20 mayfacilitate the movement of railcars between the inbound queues 14 andthe maintenance stations 24. The maintenance stations may include, butmay not be limited to: repair stations 28 a-28 e, an interior blaststation 30, an exterior blast station 32, an exterior paint station 34,interior paint stations 35 a-35 c, cure stations 36 a-36 c, and anassembly and test station 37.

A secondary transfer table 38 may be located within the transfer area 18and may also operate along track 22. The secondary transfer table 38 mayfacilitate movement between the inbound queues 14 a-14 d, a cleaningfacility 42 and/or the outbound railway 44. Although the primarytransfer table 20 and the secondary transfer table 38 may have dedicatedresponsibilities as noted above, either transfer table may be capable ofmaintaining the entire transfer of railcars in the event of equipmentbreakdown or for any other reason.

In a preferred embodiment, the primary transfer table 20 and thesecondary transfer table 38 may be identical in size, shape, andperformance. The tables 20,38 may be disposed on the track 22 within ashallow pit. The primary transfer table 20 and secondary transfer table38 may be approximately sixteen feet wide by eighty feet long with amaximum capacity of sixty tons. However, any size and shape may beimplemented that may be apparent to those skilled in the art. A motor,preferably a forty horsepower variable frequency electric driven motor(not shown), may drive each transfer table 20,38 at a plurality ofspeeds, preferably between about thirty and one hundred and fifty feetper minute. Additionally, the transfer tables 20, 38 may be capable ofsoft starts, electric braking, and loading and unloading railcars via amounted railcar mover (not shown) thus eliminating the need for trackmobiles and similar equipment. Further, railcars may be loaded andunloaded from either side of the transfer tables 20,38. It should benoted, however, that any system for moving the tables 20,38 and/orloading and unloading mounted railcars may be utilized and thisinvention is not meant to be limited as herein described.

Although the maintenance facility 10 may be designed in any mannerapparent to those skilled in the art, the maintenance facility 10 maypreferably have two rectangular buildings located on opposite sides ofthe track 22. On a first side 13 of the track 22, the maintenancefacility 10 may include a series of the repair stations 28 a-28 e thatmay be equipped to process any type of railcar, such as, for example,tank cars and hoppers. On the opposite side 15 of the track 22, themaintenance facility 10 may include series of stations (as describedbelow) that may be required to perform interior and exterior paintoperations and cleaning. However, any type of station may be located oneither side, or in any other location, as may be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Generally, the design of the maintenance facility 10and the placement of the maintenance stations therein allow forefficient movement of railcars therethrough.

The repair stations 28 a-28 e may preferably be located adjacent to thetransfer table area 18 or in any other location apparent to those havingskill in the art. Maximum efficiency and utility may be gained byequipping each repair workstation 28 a-28 e with general-purpose railcarmaintenance equipment that may be capable of servicing a plurality oftypes of railcars serviced by the maintenance facility 10. For example,equipment located in each repair workstation 42 may include: cranes,welding equipment, jacks, and/or other various mechanical tools apparentto a person having ordinary skill in the art of maintaining railcars.Railcars having damage or damaged parts may be repaired in the repairstations 28 a-28 e.

Additionally, the present invention illustrated in FIG. 1 may preferablyinclude an administrative building 43 having offices therein and aservice parts inventory storage area 45 located adjacent to the repairstations 28 a-28 e. The service parts inventory storage area 45 maycontain a plurality of parts useful for repairing or otherwisemaintaining railcars. Generally, a repair station worker may retrieveparts from within the service parts inventory storage area 45 to repairrailcars within the repair stations 28 a-28 e. Moreover, a maintenancearea 48 may be provided that may house equipment for repairing specificparts on the railcars, or for any other purpose that may be apparent tothose skilled in the art. For example, damaged valves on tank cars maybe repaired by being removed from the tank cars in one of the repairstations 28 a-28 e. The valve may then be taken to the maintenance area46 for repair.

The present invention may further include a cleaning station 42 adjacentto the transfer table area. The cleaning facility 42 may be capable ofcleaning any type of railcar serviced by the maintenance facility 10.Generally, the cleaning station 42 may include a plurality of bays forservicing a plurality of railcars at any one time. The cleaning station42 typically contains equipment necessary to implement the cleaning ofany type of railcar, such as, for example, solvents, detergents, waterhoses, vacuums, drains and/or any other equipment apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

In a preferred embodiment, the cleaning facility 42 may be asimultaneous cleaning facility capable of cleaning a plurality ofrailcars at the same time. The cleaning facility 42 may include aplurality of high-pressure hot water cleaning systems. Each system maybe equipped with a high-pressure hot water injector having pressuregauges, steam and water supply inlets, air compressors, discharge pipingand/or any other equipment that may be apparent to those skilled in theart. An overhead mezzanine (not shown) may allow easy and safe access tothe railcars for access to the tops of the railcars and to any hatchesthat may be contained on the railcars. A crane may be installed on themezzanine for the easy removal of cover plates, valves, hatch covers orany other part or component of the railcar.

The cleaning facility 42 of the preferred embodiment may be controlledby a central programmable logic control (“PLC”) system (not shown). ThePLC system may be capable of automatically routing wastewater and rinsewater into and/or away from the cleaning facility 42. Further, the PLCsystem may monitor temperature and flow rate of the water, and mayelectronically record the individual railcar cleaning time periods.Therefore, efficiency may be maximized and data relating to variousparameters, such as, for example, amount of water used, time period forcleaning and/or other parameters may be measured and recorded.

Furthermore, the cleaning facility 42 of the preferred embodiment mayinclude a cleaning pad (not shown) that may have suitable grating toallow for easy discharge of wastewater to an underground drainage system(not shown). The drainage system may be provided beneath the fourrailroad tracks at the cleaning station to convey the wastewater and/orrinse water to a sump by gravity flow and for discharge according tosafe environmental practices. For example, the repair facility 10 mayinclude an onsite wastewater treatment plant (not shown) for treatingthe wastewater generated by the cleaning facility 42. Alternatively, thecleaning facility 42 may tie into an existing wastewater system such as,for example, a municipal wastewater treatment facility.

Still referring to FIG. 1, the interior blast station 30 may be utilizedto strip the interior of a railcar. The blast station 30 may send apowerful jet of steam, water, metal grit, sand or other material intothe interior of the railcar to remove any material therein and/or removeany protective coatings adhered to the walls and/or other components ofthe railcar. Specifically, the blast station 30 may be utilized toremove liners that have been coated to the interior of the railcar thatmay be damaged or otherwise unfit for use within the railcar.

For example, FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the interior blaststation 30. The interior blast station 30 may include a plurality ofrailcar bays 100-104 having railcars 110-114 therein. The railcar bays100-104 may provide space for blasting one railcar while cleaninganother railcar that may already have been blasted. A blasting operationmay be performed to remove a faulty lining of a railcar before a newlining may be applied. The blasting operation may be accomplished by anymeans obvious to one with skill in the art, such as, for example, metalpellet or metal grit blasting. As noted, a preferred embodiment of theinterior blast station 30 may include a plurality of railcar bays100-104. More preferably, a robotic blast arm 106 in a first railcar bay100 may enter the railcar and perform a blast cycle, preferably forabout two hours, in a first railcar while a high powered vacuum in asecond railcar bay 102 (not shown) may perform a cleaning cycle,preferably for about four hours, in a second railcar. A third railcarbay 104 may be used for transferring railcars into and out of theinterior blast station 30.

The robotic blast arm 106 may be moveably mounted within a truss system108 that may allow the robotic blast system 106 to service all threerailcar bays 100-104. The moveably mounted robotic blast arm 106 mayallow each of the bays within the interior blast station 30 to be usedfor prepping, blasting, and/or cleaning, thereby eliminating the need totransfer the railcars between bays within the interior blast station 30.

In a preferred embodiment, the robotic blast arm 106 may be any type ofcleaning arm that may be designed to enter the top hatch of a tank caror via any other hatch, door or opening. The arm 106 may be hinged atvarious locations to allow the arm to gain access to the interior of therailcar. Further, the arm 106 may telescope forward to reach a specifieddistance within the railcar. In a preferred embodiment, the arm 106 mayreach an entirety of the interior of the railcar or may come within aspecified distance, such as within eighty inches or any other distance,of the far ends of the tank car. The arm 106 may be equipped with twoblast nozzles that may operate at a specified pressure.

In a preferred embodiment, the arm 106 may include ⅝″ blast nozzles thatmay operate at about 150 psi, however any size nozzle and pressure maybe implemented according to this invention. The arm 106 may be capableof rotating ninety degrees while oscillating the blast nozzles to ensurea thorough and even coverage of the blast within the railcar. Theprocess time may be any time period that may fully and efficiently blastand clean the interior of the railcar. As noted in the preferredembodiment, the estimated process time of the interior blast operationmay be about two hours, followed by about a four-hour clean period. Thecleaning operation may be completed using a high powered vacuum (notshown) to remove the blasting material, such as metal grit, sand orwater, and any residue that has been blasted from the interior of therailcar.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the exterior blast station 32 is illustratedand may be used to prepare railcars for an exterior paint or coatingoperation. Generally, the exterior blast station 32 may contain anyequipment useful for removing a coating and/or any other residualmaterial from the exterior of a railcar. In a preferred embodiment, theexterior blast station 32 may have space for two railcars. A first bay(not shown) within the exterior blast station 32 may be utilized for theblasting of the exterior of the railcar. Moreover, a second bay (notshown) within the exterior blast station 32 may be utilized to providelight repair to the railcar prior to or after the blasting of therailcar. The second bay may allow repairs to be made to the railcarwithout using one of the repair stations 28 a-28 e. This may preventdelays that may occur when a mechanical defect is discovered on arailcar that has been loaded into the exterior blast station 32. If arailcar loaded into the exterior blast station 50 requires mechanicalrepair prior to the exterior blasting operation, the railcar can betransferred forward into the second bay for mechanical repair allowingthe first bay to continue the blasting operation without a delay.

An air compressor area 33 may be disposed adjacent to both the interiorblast station 30 and the exterior blast station 32. The air compressorarea 33 may contain an air compressor (not shown) and any otherequipment for providing the requisite air pressure necessary for theblasting equipment.

An exterior paint station 34 may be provided within the facility 10 forproviding an external coating of paint or other material to the railcar.Typically, a railcar will receive an external coating after blasting hasremoved a previous coating. Of course, railcars may be coated within theexterior paint station 34 without being blasted in the exterior blaststation 32. The exterior paint station 34 may contain equipment and anyother materials apparent to those skilled in the art for providingexternal coatings to railcars. In a preferred embodiment, the exteriorpaint station 34 may have an open ceiling having a filter therein tofacilitate direct airflow through the entire length of the exteriorpaint station 34. The exterior paint station may further have aplurality of pneumatic lifts to enable a painter access to most, if notall, of the exterior of the railcar without using ladders and/orcatwalks.

Internal paint stations 35 a-35 c may also be provided to allow linersand/or coatings to be administered to the interiors of the railcars thatmay cycle through the facility 10. Typically, a railcar may receive aninternal coating of paint after having been blasted and cleaned in theinterior blast station 30. Of course, the railcar may receive a liner ora coating of paint without being blasted in the interior blast station30; it is not necessary, however, it is preferable, for a railcar to beblasted and cleaned first. Further, any number of internal paintstations may be constructed depending on the particular needs of thefacility 10 and the invention should not be limited as herein described.

A paint kitchen 37 may be disposed adjacent both the exterior paintstation 34 and the interior paint stations 35 a-35 c. The paint kitchen37 may contain any equipment and materials necessary to allow anindividual to develop desirable coating materials for placement of thecoating materials onto or within the railcars.

Paint cure stations 36 a-36 c may be provided for allowing railcarshaving been coated in the exterior paint stations 34 or the interiorpaint stations 35 a-35 c to be cured thereby setting the coatings on therailcars. The cure stations 36 a-36 c may contain any equipment or othermaterials necessary to provide a suitable cure for the coatings. Forexample, the cure stations 36 a-36 c may contain an air circulationsystem (not shown) for circulating air, such as, for example, heatedair, within and around the railcar to aid in curing the coating of paintor other materials onto the railcar.

Still referring to FIG. 1, the lining queue area 26 may be provided toprevent works-in-process from draining the efficiency of the repairworkstations 28 a-28 e. It has been determined that the interiorblasting operation that may be implemented within the interior blaststation 30 may cause a bottleneck within the maintenance facility 10since it the time period required to complete the interior blastingoperation is relatively longer than any other operation implemented inany other maintenance station. Railcars requiring service from theinterior blast station 30 may be stored within a set of tracks withinthe lining queue area 26 prior to blasting so that the railcars do notdelay the services of, for example, one of the repair stations 28 a-28e. Further, holding the railcars within the lining queue area 26 mayallow a railcar to enter the interior blast station 30 in a quick andefficient manner due to the proximity of the railcar to the interiorblast station 30 and also because a railcar would be readily availableto enter the interior blast station 30 immediately. Moreover, after therailcar has been blasted in the interior blast station 30, painted andcured, the railcar may be stored within the cure queue area 27. Thesequeue stations 26,27 may allow a railcar to be stored and therefore nottake up space within one of the stations that may be utilized foranother railcar.

In a preferred embodiment, the lining queue area 26 and/or the curequeue area 27 may have space for any number of railcars within thequeues. When a railcar is transferred from the lining queue area 26 tothe interior blast station 30, the available space in the lining queuearea 26 may be filled by transferring a railcar from the inbound queues14 a-14 d or one of the repair workstations 28 a-28 e to the liningqueue area 26 or any other station within the facility 10 on a firstcome, first serve basis. Moreover, when a railcar is transferred fromthe cure queue area 27 to one of the cures stations 36 a-36 c, theavailable space within the cure queue area 27 may be filled bytransferring a railcar from the exterior paint station 34 and/or theinterior paint stations 35 a-35 c.

There may be other queue areas provided within the facility 10 as may beapparent to those having ordinary skill in the art. Typically, the queueareas are designed to provide areas for storing railcars so that therailcars do not take up space within the maintenance stations within thefacility, thereby allowing railcars to quickly and efficiently movethrough the facility 10.

The assembly and test station 37 may be utilized to reassemble railcarsafter repair, cleaning, painting, coating, lining and/or any other typeof maintenance that may have been performed on the railcar. Further theassembly and test station 37 may be utilized to test the railcars toverify that the maintenance to the railcars was successful. For example,if a lining was coated to the interior of a railcar, then the lining maybe tested to ensure that the lining has been properly applied.Generally, testers may determine whether the railcar has, in fact,received the maintenance required. Further, testers may determinewhether the maintenance performed on the railcars meets predefinedstandards of acceptability. Standards may include internal companystandards or may be specified by governmental bodies or agencies orother governing bodies.

In the preferred embodiment of the repair facility 10, safety may beenhanced through the use of video equipment designed to monitor allprocesses that may require a person to be inside railcar. Suchoperations may include the interior cleaning process that follows theinterior blast operation and the interior paint operation. Remote videomay provide full visual contact for all areas of the interior tank andmay allow a human observer, who has limited sight access, to be deployedto another operation within the repair facility 10.

After a railcar has had maintenance performed thereon and has beentested and/or reassembled in the assembly and test station 37, therailcars may exit the railcar maintenance facility 10 via an outboundrailway 44. The outbound railway 44 may be connected with the assemblyand test station 37 or may otherwise be connected to the transfer area18, as shown in FIG. 1. The transfer tables 20,38 may transport arailcar to the outbound tracks 44 for exiting of the railcar from therailcar maintenance facility 10.

Routing Patterns Within the Maintenance Facility

Generally, the routing of railcars through the maintenance facility 10is dependent on the type of railcar, the product type within therailcar, and the maintenance work that may be necessary for the railcar.For example, types of railcars may include tanks, pressurized tanks,hoppers and/or any other type of railcar apparent to those skilled inthe art. The railcars may carry a plurality of different product typessuch as, for example, food grade commodities such as corn syrupsweeteners, citric acid, starches and ethanol. Moreover, the railcarsmay carry hazardous materials such as products for oil refiningindustries. Railcars may be routed through the maintenance facilitybased on whether the railcars require repairs, such as heavy repairs forrailcars that are highly damaged, or light repairs, internal blasting,external blasting, cleaning material, painting, external painting andpaint.

FIGS. 3-6 illustrate particular routing patterns that may be implementedfor particular types of railcars that may have particular maintenancerequirements. It should be noted, however, that any type of railcar maybe serviced by the maintenance facility 10 in any routing pattern thatmay be apparent to those skilled in the art. The invention should not belimited as herein described with respect to the particular routingpatterns.

FIG. 3 illustrates a routing pattern 200 for a tank car 202. The tankcar 202 may be any type of tank, such as pressurized or unpressurizedtank cars, attached to a set of trucks for transporting the tank on aset of rails. Moreover, the tank car 202 may require heavy repair orlight repair and may further require internal and/or external paint orlining.

The tank car 202 may enter the maintenance facility 10 via the set ofrails 12 a or 12 b. The tank car may have been inspected via aninspection step 204 at an inspection station (not shown). Preferably,the railcars may enter the inspection facility via a single railway (notshown). After the railcars are inspected at the inspection station, thenthe railcars may be transferred to the particular set of rails 12 a or12 b based on the results of the inspection. If the tank car 202requires “heavy” repair, due to large amounts of damage to the tank car202, then the tank car 202 may be routed via inbound railway 12 b andmay further be queued in inbound queue 14 c,14 d until one of the repairstations 28 a-28 e opens to allow entry of the tank car 202 thereinto.

Moreover, if the tank car 202 requires “light” maintenance, the tank car202 may be routed to the maintenance facility 10 via the inbound railway12 a where the tank car 202 may be queued in queues 14 a,14 b until oneof the repair stations 28 a-28 e that may be capable of handling thelight repair becomes vacant. It should be noted that repair stations 28a-28 e may be specifically designated either for “heavy” or “light”maintenance depending on the volume of railcars being served at themaintenance facility 10. Alternatively, and in a preferred embodiment,each of the repair stations 28 a-28 e may be capable of handling anytype of railcar having any type of repair designation.

Moreover, tank cars may enter the maintenance facility 10 in a wreckedstate and may receive a “wrecked” designation via the inspection step204. The “wrecked” designation may indicate that the tank car requires athorough cleaning and major repairs, interior blasting and painting,exterior blasting and painting, and assembly/testing, as will bediscussed more fully below.

Generally, a determination as to whether the tank car 202 requires“heavy” or “light” repair, interior lining and/or exterior painting maybe made at the inspection step 204. This determination sets the tank car202 on a particular path through the maintenance facility where theentirety of the required maintenance may be performed thereon. Thedetermination allows inspectors to assign a designation to the tank car202 based on the particular routing pattern necessary prior to enteringthe maintenance facility 10.

The particular designation may determine the precise routing patternthat is necessary for the tank car 202 to receive the necessarymaintenance. The routing pattern designation may be marked on the tankcar 202 to be seen by railcar handlers throughout the maintenancefacility 10 so that the tank car 202 is routed to the proper maintenancestations. The designation may be removably attached to the tank car 202with magnets or may constitute any other designation device apparent tothose skilled in the art. Hence, a railcar maintenance worker within therailcar maintenance facility 10 may see the designation and the requiredmaintenance steps and route the railcar accordingly through themaintenance facility 10.

If only “light” repair is necessary, then the tank car 202 may be routedvia the “fast track” repair pattern 208. The fast track repair pattern208 merely requires that the tank car 202 enter one of the repairstations 28 a-28 e and be visually inspected for minor damage such as ifthe tank car 202 requires replacement parts for valves and/or the like.The tank car 202 may then be repaired. Moreover, the tank car 202 isthen cleaned via step 210. It should take a relatively short period oftime for the tank car 202 to enter and exit a repair station 28 a-28 efor fast track repair.

If “heavy” repair is required, then the tank car 202 may be cleaned viastep 212 and further may be fully repaired via step 214. The “fullrepair” step 214 may require various parts of the tank car 202 to bedisassembled. Moreover, major pieces of the tank car 202 may be repairedand/or replaced depending on the type of damage done. The time periodmay be significantly longer than with fast track repair.

After the tank car 202 is repaired via the fast track repair step 208 orthe full repair 214, then the tank car 202 may be removed from therepair station 28 a-28 e. If the tank car 202 does not require interioror exterior painting (as noted below) then the tank car 202 may proceeddirectly to an “assembly and test” step 216 whereby the tank car 202 mayenter the assembly and test station 37. After the tank car 202 isreassembled and/or tested the tank car 202 may be removed from theassembly and test station 37 via one of the transfer tables 20,38 andmay exit the maintenance facility 10 via step 218 on the outboundrailway 44.

However, in many instances, the tank car 202 may need interior paintingor lining. The determination of whether the tank car 202 needs interiorpainting or lining may be made via the inspection step 204. If the tankcar 202 requires interior painting or lining then the tank car 202 maybe transferred to the interior blast station 30 where the interior ofthe tank car 202 may be blasted via an interior blast step 222 by metalgrit, pellets, sand or any other material apparent to those skilled inthe art for stripping any paint or lining that may be adhered to theinterior of the tank car 202. Moreover, the interior may then be cleanedvia the vacuum. It should be noted that a plurality of tank cars may belocated within the interior blast station 30. For example, as notedabove with reference to FIG. 2, a tank car may be blasted in the firstbay 100, a second tank car may be cleaned in the second bay 102, and thethird bay 104 may be used to transfer tank cars into and out of theinterior blast station 30.

If there is no bay available to conduct the interior blast via step 222,then the tank car 202 may be held in the lining queue area 26 (as shownin FIG. 1). The lining queue area 26 may hold and store the tank caruntil a bay in the interior blast station becomes available. This mayallow the tank car 202 to be removed from its repair station 28 a-28 eand held without effectively blocking the repair station 28 a-28 d frombeing used for other railcars. Therefore, railcars may move through themaintenance facility 10 without being bottlenecked at the interior blaststation 30.

After the interior of the tank car 202 is blasted and cleaned, the tankcar 202 may be transferred to an interior paint station 35 a-35 c wherea first coat of a lining may be coated via step 224. After the interiorcoating or lining is painted, the tank car 202 may be cured in one ofthe cure stations 36 a-36 c.

After the tank car 202 has been cured via the interior cure step 226,the tank car 202 may be transferred back to one of the interior paintstations 35 a-35 c for a second application of paint via step 228.However, if no interior paint station 35 a-35 c is available to take thetank car 202 for a second coat, then the tank car 202 may be held withinthe cure queue area 27 until an interior paint station 35 a-35 c becomesavailable. This may allow tank cars to be removed from the cure stations36 a-36 c and not block the use of the cure stations 36 a-36 c. Afterthe second application of paint is applied to the interior of the tankcar 202, the tank car 202 may be cured a second time via a secondinterior cure step 230 via one of the cure stations 36 a-36 c.

If needed, the tank car 202 may have painted on its exterior anapplication of paint. The determination as to whether the tank car 202needs exterior paint may be made via the inspection step 204. If a tankcar 202 requires exterior paint, then the tank car 202 may betransferred to the exterior blast station 32 where the tank car 202 maybe blasted via step 234 by metal grit, pellets, sand or any othermaterial that may remove the previous painted coating on the exterior ofthe tank car 202. A vacuum may then be utilized to clean the exterior ofthe tank car 202 thereby removing the residual metal grit, pellets, sandor other material and any paint that may have been removed from the tankcar 202. Then, the tank car 202 may be transferred to the exterior paintstation 34 for a first exterior paint application step 236. The firstexterior paint application may then be cured via an exterior cure step238, whereupon a second exterior paint coat may be applied via step 240.The second exterior paint coat may be cured via step 242.

After the exterior has been painted, then the tank car 202 may proceedto the “assembly and test” step 216 to be reassembled, if necessary, andtested to verify that the required repairs have been accomplished andthat the internal lining or coating adequately holds product withoutleakage, as noted above with reference to FIG. 1. After the tank car 202has been reassembled and/or tested via the “assembly and test” step 216,then the tank car 202 may be transferred to the outbound railway 44 viathe “exit” step 218.

It should be noted that tank cars requiring a plurality of services maybe routed through the maintenance facility 10 via the routing patternillustrated in FIG. 3. For example, as noted above, tank cars requiringlight or heavy services may be routed via routing pattern 200. However,tank cars that have been wrecked through train accidents or that mayhave extremely serious damage may also be routed via the routing pattern200.

A “bad order” tank car may refer to a newly produced tank car that mayhave minor defects in parts on the tank car and therefore may requireminor maintenance. A “Bad Order” tank car routing pattern 250 isillustrated in FIG. 4. A bad order tank car 252 may be inspected viastep 254 to determine its routing pattern through the maintenancefacility 10. However, since a bad order tank car 252 is newly producedand only requires minor maintenance, then the bad order tank car 252 maybe automatically designated for fast track repair via step 256.Moreover, cleaning may be required as determined by the inspection step254. If cleaning is required, then the bad order tank car 252 may becleaned via step 258 at the cleaning station 42. The bad order tank car252 may then exit the facility via step 260 on the outbound railway 44.

Hopper railcars may also be serviced by the maintenance facility 10, asillustrated by the routing pattern 300 illustrated in FIG. 5. A hopperrailcar 302 may be inspected via an inspection step 304 prior toentering the maintenance facility 10. As before with the tank cars notedabove with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4, the hopper 302 may be inspected fora determination as to whether “heavy” repairs or “light” repairs arenecessary. If “light” repairs are necessary, then the hopper may bedesignated to a fast track repair route via a “fast track” repair step308. The hopper railcar 302 may then exit the facility via step 310 bybeing transferred to the outbound railway 44 via the transfer tables20,38.

If the hopper railcar is not designated for fast track repair, then thehopper railcar may have “heavy” maintenance performed thereon via a“full repair” step 312. Further, after the full repair step 312, thehopper 302 may require cleaning via step 316. After the cleaning, thehopper 302 may exit the maintenance facility 10 via step 310 by beingtransferred to the outbound railway 44 by one of the transfer tables20,38.

FIG. 6 illustrates a routing pattern 350 for a hopper railcar 352 thatmay be wrecked due to, for example, a train crash. An inspection step354 may indicate what maintenance needs are required. Generally, wreckedhoppers require full repair via a full repair step 356. If the hopperrailcar 352 requires an exterior painting then the exterior of thehopper railcar 352 may be blasted via step 360. The hopper railcar 352may then be painted via step 362 and cured via step 364. As noted abovewith respect to FIG. 2, the hopper railcar 352 may be transferred viathe transfer tables 20,38 to the exterior blast station 32, the exteriorpaint station 34 and one of the cure stations 36 a-36 c. The hopperrailcar 352 may further be reassembled and tested via step 366 and mayexit the maintenance facility 10 via step 368 via the outbound railway44.

Maintenance Facility Management

The railcars described herein may be released into the maintenancefacility 10 at a rate that maintains a constant level ofwork-in-process. In other words, there are certain stations within themaintenance facility that may cause “bottlenecks” if not managedproperly. For example, the interior lining operation of tank cars,specifically, the interior blasting operation, carried out in theinterior blasting station 30, may cause bottlenecks because many tankcars require this operation and it may take a relatively longer periodof time to complete this operation as other operations, such asrepairing and cleaning. Therefore, the introduction of railcars into themaintenance facility 10 must be monitored closely to ensure that tankcars awaiting interior lining are not causing delays in other areas ofthe maintenance facility 10. However, any maintenance station within themaintenance facility 10 may cause a bottleneck and this invention shouldnot be limited as herein described.

To implement this system, the maintenance facility 10 may utilize ahybrid Constant Work-In-Process (“ConWIP”) and kanban system. The ConWIPmay be implemented at a bottleneck source within the maintenancefacility, such as before the interior blast station 30 at the liningqueue area 26. However, it should be noted that the ConWIP may belocated at any maintenance station apparent to those skilled in the artas causing bottlenecks within the maintenance facility 10. Moreover, itshould be noted that a plurality of ConWIPs may be utilized andimplemented within the maintenance facility 10 at any maintenancestation that may cause a bottleneck. Specifically, the ConWIP may belocated at the lining queue area 26. As noted above, in a system such asthe one described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, bottlenecks mayoccur most frequently at the interior blast station 30. By placing theConWIP system at the lining queue area 26, the interior blast station 30may be efficiently managed to prevent tank cars from delaying otherprocesses within the maintenance facility 10.

Generally, the ConWIP may be implemented to monitor the status of thebays 100-104 within the interior blast station 30 and/or the liningqueue area 26. When the bays 100-104 and the lining queue area 26 arefilled with tank cars either being blasted, cleaned or awaiting process,then the ConWIP may communicate to the inbound railways 12 a,12 b and/orinbound queues 14 a-14 d to not release any tank cars requiring a liningoperation into the maintenance facility 10. Therefore, since the tankcars requiring the lining operation may also require repairing at arepair station 28 a-28 e, cleaning via the cleaning stations 42, and/orexterior painting via the exterior paint station 32, then the tank carwill not be released into maintenance facility 10 thereby allowing therepair stations 28 a-28 e, the cleaning stations 42 and/or the exteriorpaint station 32 to remain free of these railcars and open to othertypes of railcars thereby eliminating the bottleneck.

As a complement to the ConWIP card “pull” and monitoring system notedabove, kanbans may be used to prevent the transfer tables 20,38 frombringing railcars into the maintenance facility when no maintenancestation is available. Each maintenance station may have a kanban tocommunicate whether a railcar may be transported thereto and loadedthereinto. For example, if the repair station 28 a is filled with arailcar, then the kanban system may communicate to the inbound railways12 a,12 b that no further railcar should be released to the repairstations 28 a. The operator of the transfer tables 20,38 may then lookfor the next available repair station 28 b-28 e as indicated by thekanban system. If no repair station is available, then the railcar mayremain in the inbound queue 14 a-14 d until a repair station 28 a-28 eis available.

Both the ConWIP and kanban systems may use any type of communicationsystem apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art. However, apreferred embodiment may be a green light/red light communication systemto communicate whether a railcar should be released into the maintenancefacility 10. For example, at the bottleneck process (at the interiorblasting station 30), the ConWIP may communicate, via a red light, thatall bays and the lining queue area 26 are filled with waiting orin-process tank cars. Therefore, an operator at the inbound railways 12a,12 b would know not to release a tank car requiring, specifically, alining operation among other operations into any maintenance stationwithin the maintenance facility 10. If the ConWIP is green, then theoperator at the inbound railways may check the kanbans at any individualstations to determine where he should route the railcar. Further, if akanban shows red, then the operator at the inbound railways 12 a,12 bwould know not to release a railcar to that particular station. In analternate embodiment of the ConWIP and kanban systems, there may be alighted board or a computer screen showing the ConWIP and kanban systemsand whether railcars may be released into the maintenance facility 10and/or to any particular maintenance station.

An operator at the inbound railways 12 a,12 b would need to know how toroute a railcar through the maintenance facility 10. Therefore, theoperator would note the color of the attached routing schedule to movethe railcars to the proper maintenance station. Further, it should benoted that any communication system may be utilized to indicate to aoperator whether railcars should be released into the maintenancefacility 10. Moreover, the ConWIP system may be implemented at any stagewithin the maintenance facility 10 as may be apparent to those skilledin the art for relieving the maintenance facility 10 of bottlenecks andother delays that may occur within the maintenance facility 10.

It should be noted that various changes and modifications to thepresently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention andwithout diminishing its attendant advantages. It is, therefore, intendedthat such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claims.

We claim:
 1. A Railcar Maintenance Facility Management Systemcomprising: a railcar maintenance facility having a plurality ofmaintenance stations; a first maintenance station within the railcarmaintenance facility; a first railcar requiring services of the firstmaintenance station; a first communication means associated with thefirst maintenance station wherein the first communication means signalsto an operator of the maintenance facility whether the associated firstmaintenance station is available or unavailable to accept the firstrailcar and further if unavailable, then the first railcar is notreleased into the railcar maintenance facility; a second maintenancestation within the railcar maintenance facility; a second railcarrequiring services of the second maintenance station and further whereinthe second railcar does not require the services of the firstmaintenance station wherein the release of the second railcar into themaintenance facility is independent of whether the first maintenancestation is available to accept railcars.
 2. The systems of claim 1further comprising: a second communication means associated with eachmaintenance station for signaling whether each maintenance station isavailable or unavailable to accept railcars requiring services of eachmaintenance station.
 3. The system of claim 1 further comprising: aninspection area for sorting railcars by their type and maintenanceneeds.
 4. The system of claim 1 further comprising: a first queue areawherein the first queue area stores railcars waiting for a firstmaintenance station to become available.
 5. The system of claim 1wherein the first maintenance station is an interior blast station forremoving interior linings from the railcars.
 6. The system of claim 1further comprising: an inbound queue area within the facility forholding railcars prior to entering the maintenance facility.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1 further comprising: a plurality of bays within thefirst maintenance system for holding a plurality of railcars requiringthe services of the first maintenance station wherein the firstcommunication means communicates whether the bays are available orunavailable to accept railcars.
 8. The system of claim 1 wherein thefirst communication means comprises a red light and green light.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8 wherein the green light communicates that theparticular maintenance station is available to accept railcars.
 10. Thesystem of claim 8 wherein the red light communicates that the particularmaintenance station is unavailable to accept railcars.
 11. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the maintenance stations comprise a first set of repairstations wherein railcars may be repaired and a second set of stationswherein a railcar may be painted.
 12. The system of claim 1 wherein thefirst communication means comprises a red light and a green lightwherein the red light indicates that railcars requiring the services ofthe first maintenance station should not be released into themaintenance facility and further wherein the green light indicates thatthe first maintenance station is available to accept railcars.
 13. Thesystem of claim 1 further comprising: a designation removably attachedto the railcars to communicate the maintenance needs of the railcars.14. A railcar maintenance facility management system comprising: arailcar maintenance facility comprising an inbound railway, an inboundqueue area, a transfer area, a first set of maintenance stations, asecond set of maintenance stations and an outbound railway; a firstcommunication means connected to each maintenance station within thefirst set of maintenance stations wherein the first communication meanscommunicates whether each maintenance station within the first set ofmaintenance stations is available to receive a railcar requiringservices of the first set of maintenance station; and a secondcommunication means connected to the second set of maintenance stationswherein the second communication means communicates whether the secondset of maintenance stations is available to receive a railcar requiringservices of the second set of maintenance stations and further whereinthe second communication means communicates to an operator of themaintenance facility whether the railcar requiring the services of thesecond set of maintenance stations should be accepted into themaintenance facility.